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A wide choice of topics covered from the dawn of history right up to present days . Many of these have a wider relevance than purely within the context of Strathearn . The author's viewpoint often is at variance with the accepted opinions espoused elsewhere eg The Jacobite Uprisings and The Reformation .

Crieff’s “ Dad’s Army “ – the Home Guard of World War 2

After the onset of WW 2 , the safety of small towns such as Crieff was in the hands of what was termed the LDVF – the Local Defence Force Volunteer
This somewhat cumbersome title was changed
on the 9th of August 1940 to the Home Guard . The BBC
series Dad’s Army ran from 1968 to 1977
with a number of well known “ vintage “ actors of the time including Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring ( pronounced
Manner - ing ! ) , John Le Mesurier as Sergeant
Wilson, Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones and
a host of others . This sit com was
based very much on the belief that the
Home Guard was made
of bumbling incompetents who were either retired
or were in reserved occupations .My
own father who was employed in the
general office of a large steel
manufacturing company in the West of Scotland fell into the latter category and I know how seriously they took their task in their contribution
to the Nations defence .

I have in my possession a document entitled “Diary of the 3rd Perthshire Bn (
Battalion ) H.G ( Home Guard) “ and sub
titled “ Historical Notes- December 1944 “ . On the basis that the document
is some seventy years old , I am of the
belief that I can disclose some of its
contents without danger of being to The
Tower for High Treason !

In addition to the Diary , I had the privilege of interviewing a local Crieff man , the late Johnnie Brough ,
as part of an Open University Oral History course I was undertaking back in the
1990s . Johnnie had suffered a
disability as a result of polio as a child
and was rejected for army service . He opted to join the Home Guard and some of the tales he related were perhaps not
suitable for inclusion in the official Diary !

I have chosen ,
nevertheless , to select some exerts from
the Diary which perhaps reflect what it
was really like to be in the Crieff and neighbouring
areas Home Guard away back in those far
off days . This part of Strathearn was a busy place with numerous regiments based in and around Crieff including a Free
Polish Army Unit at the Hydro which had
been commandeered for military use , the
RASC in the Taylor’s Institute School ( the school had been moved in with Crieff Primary ) . After that came a Battalion of the Enniskillen
Fusiliers, a Battalion of the Wiltshire
Regiment as well as a Battalion of th Cameronians . There were troops at the
Market Park where the Canteen was located as well as Nissan Huts erected at the
Bridgend . A prisoner of war camp was located at Cultybraggan for German
soldiers whilst in Crieff , Italian
prisoners of war were housed .

In May and June 1940
the LDVF was raised in this part of Strathearn and was termed “No. 3 Company, No. 9 Group
LDVF “ which was later to become the “ 3rd Perthshire Battalion Home
Guard “.The Auchterarder Platoon covered Auchterarder , Strathallan ,Duppplin
and Dunning and Gask and Aberuthven .It was under the leadership of JC McIntyre
assisted by N McLaren , Sir JD Roberts ,
ADC Main and GA Buchanan , Across the Strath in Crieff the initial set up was
led by DW Crighton and the three Crieff
sections by RJB Sellar, JM Scrimgeour
and SDW Stewart . In addition there were
three other sections based at
Amulree Madderty and Trinity College

( Glenalmond ) .

By all accounts the local Home Guard were well set up in terms of arms and
equipment but initially this was not the case . According to Johnnie Brough all
they had were pikestaffs – long tubes of
steel with a pin stuck in the end . The only rifles they had were Lee Enfield relics
from World War 1 supplied by Morrison’s’ Academy OTC ( Officer Training Corps )
! They seemed , however, to be very much involved in routine training and
participation in combined exercises with the regular army. The Diary mentions a number of incidents which no doubt
raided the blood pressure of the elderly members of the platoon . In the early days of
the war the Home Guard / LDVF investigated a report of parachutists in the
hills behind Glenalmond . This turned
out to be the RAF practicing the
dropping of supplies by parachute ! In
1941 the Strathallan Platoon turned out to
search for a parachutist in the immediate
vicinity after a number of reports
were received . It turned out to be a false alarm as the culprit was not a human being but a stray barrage balloon !

To keep the men on their toes regular exercises were held in
the area . The Diary recounts a
particular one in March 1942 : “ Exercise
‘Pongo’ saw B Company attack A Company at Findo Gask Aerodrome in which rapid
reinforcing was attempted by mobile
Platoons against a threat by paratroops
. An engagement at the edge of the aerodrome resulted in a useful lesson being
learned “ What the lesson was it
does not
state but I am sure it was all
worthwhile !

A somewhat more bizarre tale was told to me by Johnnie Brough
: “ I can remember something big was
happening and two Divisions came down from the North of Scotland . They sent us
to Gask School on Saturday and Sunday .We had sandwiches and our dixies .We tried to cook on the stove in the class room but it would have taken a year to brew up and
cook . One of the boys said there were lots of bricks lying outside so we
went out and built fire . We took
some coals from the head mistresses room and piled on the logs . Black out or
no black out , we all had our tea outside . What a night ! At the same time we
had been told to keep our eyes on the road passed the House of Gask which
crosses the bridge where the main
road to Perth goes . We blackened our
faces and hid behind the hedge . A bloke on a bike came along and one of the
lads jumped out . The poor man got such a fright that he leapt from his bike
into a ditch . “ A thought it was a
******* ghost ! “ , he blurted out . I
think he had had a wee drink or two ! “

How many men were
involved in the Home Guard during the War ? The Diary tells us that 1944 there were 207 men serving in Crieff, 116 in Auchterarder and some 664 in
the other parts of the district to the
east of Crieff. Interestingly , the Comrie and St Fillans areas appear to
have been attached to a different Battalion than that of Crieff.

I ran a blog in July 2012
concerning , the oldest member of Crieff Home Guard , Alexander “ Snacks
“ Taylor which makes fascinating reading
:

Alexander
Taylor was seventy-seven when war broke out. Despite his age he managed to
enlist and in doing so succeeded in becoming the oldest person in uniform in
the British forces

Taylor had served in
the Boer War as well as WW1 and lived with his
family in the Drill Hall in Meadow Place where he was employed as an instructor . After
this he moved to Mitchell Street and became
a tobacconist in High Street where Boots the Chemist is now located .

In conclusion let me list those
mentioned in the Diary who received Certificates of Commendation for Good
Service in the Crieff Home Guard

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